This invention relates to a computer-aided transcription system used by court reporters which provides readable testimony to attorneys, judges, court reporters, witnesses and clients in real-time.
As is well known, legal proceedings such as a deposition or trial involve the participation of, among others, an examining attorney who asks questions and a witness who must answer ("testify") while under oath. These answers ("testimony") are recorded by a court reporter, along with the associated questions and related conversation, using a stenographic recorder. A stenographic recorder is a machine which provides a set of keys which are stroked by the court reporter in various combinations and sequences to represent spoken words.
Older versions of the stenographic recorder only record the court reporter's key-strokes much the way a computer printer does, creating a paper tape containing the printed key-strokes as a record of the legal proceeding. After the legal proceeding ends, the court reporter reads the paper tape and manually transcribes each printed key-stroke back into the words that were spoken, creating a readable transcript of the testimony. This manual transcription process takes a great deal of time.
Newer versions of the stenographic recorder produce electronic signals representative of each key-stroke recorded. The electronic signals drive computers that help automate the transcription process. These computers are referred to as Computer Aided Transcription ("CAT") systems which translate stenographic key-strokes into text using a court reporter's personalized cross-reference library. These CAT systems only automatically transcribe those key-strokes that have textual counterparts in that court reporter's cross-reference library. Keystrokes having no counterparts must be manually transcribed by the court reporter. The ratio between the number of words automatically transcribed and those requiring manual transcription is referred to herein as the "percentage of automated transcription".
Using the newer versions of recorders and CAT systems, only seasoned, consistent court reporters having well-developed cross-reference libraries can achieve a relatively high percentage of automated transcription, while beginners and inconsistent reporters tend to produce relatively low percentages. Low percentages result in costly inefficiency resulting from the longer period of manual transcription required. Additionally, if real-time down-line transcription is desired, a high percentage of automated transcription becomes critical. In a down-line transcription environment, both counterpart text for transcribed key-strokes and all untranscribed key-strokes are sequentially transmitted down-line to the various attorneys, clients, judges and witnesses for their real-time review. However, in most cases, only court reporters can read untranscribed key-strokes. The down-line reviewers generally cannot comprehend them. As a result, the lower the percentage of automated transcription, the less likely a court reporter will ever be rehired by the down-line attorneys.
The percentage of automated transcription depends on several factors. For example, if a court reporter fails to consistently depress the same stenographic recorder keys for the same word or word sequence, the percentage of automated transcription tends to drop. Currently, to overcome this problem, the court reporter must increase their skill through practice. Beginner court reporters face a more substantial problem. Not only must they learn to consistently stroke the stenographic keys, but they must also enhance and refine their "beginner" cross-reference library so that the desired high percentage of automated transcription can be reached. The enhancement and refining process takes a great deal of time with the end result being a personalized cross-reference library that no other reporter can use.
Additionally, even the most seasoned court reporters cannot anticipate all of the unique or new words and names that will be encountered in an upcoming deposition. As a result, current CAT systems fail to transcribe such words and names. To increase the percentage of automated transcription, court reporters often ask the attorneys for a list of potential unique words and names well before the testimony is recorded so that appropriate refinement of their cross-reference library might be made. However, attorneys cannot remember or anticipate all such words, and, more often than not, forget to provide the requested list. Furthermore, because of the anticipation problem and nature of such words, one hundred percent automated transcription cannot be guaranteed. Thus, incomprehensible, untranscribed key-strokes always reach the down-line reviewers.
Because of personalization, each court reporter must regularly back-up and carry copies of their cross-reference library (usually on disk) in case their library is accidentally lost or damaged. Failure to do so may result in the court reporter not being able to conduct the deposition, and, possibly more devastating, the court reporter may have to start from scratch as would a beginner to develop another cross-reference library. Also resulting from personalization, a court reporter's library cannot be used to transcribe the key-strokes of another reporter. Doing so not only yields a low percentage of automated transcription, but might also result in virtually undetectable, wrong transcription.
To handle depositions or trials involving two or more languages, translators are required. However, using translators creates one significant problem--the validity of the translation. Translators, like any other human, often unknowingly misunderstand what is being said. Even more often, a translator will get sloppy and tend to summarize what they hear. In either case, the transcript becomes flawed. With an increased number of international legal matters, the use of translators with their inherent translation errors continues to grow.
Currently, there are over thirty thousand court reporters and hundreds of thousands of attorneys and judges in the United States alone. Hence, it would be highly desirable to solve the foregoing variety of problems enumerated above facing court reporters and down-line attorneys, judges and witnesses in conducting legal proceedings such as a deposition or trial.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus which will aid court reporters in transcription of testimony generated in real-time by an automatic transcription system.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus which will aid court reporters in eliminating the need for personalized transcription libraries for use in transcription of testimony generated in real-time by an automatic transcription system.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus which will aid beginning and inconsistent court reporters in the transcription of testimony generated in real-time by an automatic transcription system.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus which will aid court reporters in the transcription of testimony generated in real-time by an automatic transcription system through use of a fully functional, standard cross reference library.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus which will aid court reporters in developing and maintaining a common cross reference library for use in the transcription of testimony generated by a CAT system.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus which will aid court reporters in training themselves to use a standard cross reference library substantially common to all court reporters.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus which will aid court reporters in training themselves to use a common cross reference library.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus which will act as a backup to the cross-reference library in providing automated transcription for testimony generated by an automatic transcription system.
It is another object of the present invention to provide down-line reviewers with comprehensible text representing untranscribed key-strokes representing words or names having no textual counterpart in the cross-reference library.